Tag Archives: climate

You are invited to attend the Official Opening of #REday16 Renewable Energy Day by ACT Minister Mick Gentleman MLA
Including a presentation by ACT Minister Shane Rattenbury MLA
to be held 10.00 – 10.30 am Saturday, 3 December 2016
Mount Majura Solar Farm, corner of Majura Road and Lime Kiln Road, Majura ACT 2609

To be followed by Morning Tea
Renewable energy sites around the region will then open their doors and offer guided tours. You are welcome to join us on a tour of sites on one of the free buses, or as a self-drive experience.

The Environmental Decision Group reports that Australia has been ranked fifth last out of the 58 countries assessed in the latest Climate Change Performance Index, released at the UN climate talks in Marrakech.

The countries on the list below Australia are Kazakhstan, Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, while the best performing nations are France, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The index notes a gap between the national and state policies in Australia: while the former are ‘rather unambitious and uninspired’, the latter manage ‘to some extent to take independent action’.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW advises that, on Monday August 29th in Yass at 6.30pm, the proposed New Wind Energy Framework will be on exhibition.

The Department of Planning and Environment (DOPE) has released this New Wind Energy Framework for public comment, which has been developed to help balance investment in wind energy with the needs of the community.

Submissions close on 16 September, 2016. You can download the proposed Framework from here.

DOPE will also be holding a number of public information sessions on the proposed New Wind Energy Framework at:

Iain MacGill, the Co-director of the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets, UNSW, writes about this in today’s issue of The Conversation.

He writes about “Energy for the people”:
“Community renewable energy (CRE) may have a key role to play. Community energy can involve supply-side projects such as renewable energy installations and storage, and demand-side projects such as community education, energy efficiency and demand management.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June, reports on the the likely terrible impacts of the NSW Government’s proposed biodiversity legislation; the article is here.

The NSW Nature ConservationCouncil, of which FuturePLANS is a member, has initiated an advocacy campaign to protect native vegetation in NSW. This is the Stand Up For Nature campaign. You are invited to visit the campaign website to familiarise yourself with the issues and to consider engaging in advocacy to protect biodiversity in our region. Remember, submissions close on 28 June.

The SMH wrote: “The state’s farmers have lopped paddock trees at an accelerating rate in the past 18 months even before a new land-clearing law eases controls further, government data shows.

“The new figures, which reveal the rate of clearing of paddock trees has more than doubled since November 2014, come as the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists wrote to all MPs to call for a reversal of “retrograde changes” planned in the new Biodiversity Conservation act.

“NSW farmers used a new self-assessment code to remove 21,716 paddock trees – or more than 50 a day – over the past year and a half.

“The rate, at an average of about 50 per day, was 140 per cent more than the average over the previous seven years, data from the Office of Environment and Heritage showed. Paddock trees, judged to be single or small patches of trees, make up 40 per cent of remaining woodland cover, OEH says.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sold off its entire $187m investment in BP. There’s no word from them on why, but it certainly looks like the foundation is quietly getting out of fossil fuel companies. Since 2014, it has dropped 85% of such investments it had held.

Bill Gates says he’s not keen on the divestment argument but we know that the pressure you’ve put on the foundation through Keep it in the Ground – as well as the folks at Gates Divest in Seattle and the wider divestment movement – has been having an impact behind the scenes.

There was also good news from around Europe this week. Portugal ran for four days straight on renewable energy alone and last Sunday, Germany powered almost all its electricity needs from clean sources. There was so much renewable energy on the grid that at several times in the day, power prices turned negative – effectively paying consumers to use it.

At its Ordinary Meeting to be held in Bungendore on Thu 24 March, Palerang Council will consider the ‘Report on the Native Vegetation of the Palerang Local Government Area, November 2015, prepared by Umwelt Australia’. The proposal is: Recommended that Council:
1. Exhibit the draft revised Palerang native vegetation layer via Council’s Intramaps software from mid April 2016 to mid June 2016.
2. Hold an information session in Braidwood and Bungendore to discuss the revised native vegetation layer.

if you visited the Bungendore Harvest Festival this weekend, we'd love to hear your feedback, good and bad, about the Bungendore Harvest Festival so we can make next year's event bigger and better. Th...

Have you seen AGL's new shiny piece of spin? Australia's biggest polluter is giving their image a new greenwash to hide the fact that they plan to burn coal until 2050 - that's another 33 years!
Che...